ST YLE
“I think that a guy
in great shape looks
particularly sharp
in a fitted double-breasted jacket.
It’s a sign of a
gentleman, and it
works well with
trousers or jeans.”
Classic American Cool
Hilfiger’s Tommy boy grows up
It hasn’t been a straight line to success for style great Tommy Hilfiger, whose long and impressive résumé began with a failed sportswear
brand and a chain of bell-bottom depots that wound up in bankruptcy. “You can have a great business idea and great creativity, but if you
don’t have great business acumen, you have nothing,” says Hilfiger, who took that hard-won lesson to heart and built an empire of more
than 850 stores around the world. This spring, Hilfiger is opening a five-level, 22,000-square-foot global flagship on New York’s Fifth Avenue,
marking his brand’s debut on the esteemed retail strip. “It’s going to have men’s, women’s, children’s, the collection,” he says. “The best of
the best of the best.” Hilfiger has put those superlatives into his spring runway collection, which is inspired by the style of early-’80s rakes
such as Jack Nicholson. “I’m fanatical about fit, and I think that suit jackets should have all the details you would find on Savile Row,” says the
designer, who is making all of his suits and coats in Italy and fitting them with working buttonholes, ticket pockets, and horsehair linings. “It’s a
combination of iconic ideas, but put into better fabrics and finer tailoring, with more refinement and sophistication. When we started this, our
guy was the Tommy boy, but the brand has evolved. Now I’m designing for the Tommy man.” MICHAEL SLENSKE
WHERE TO BUY? SEE PAGE 114
